In the Forest
by Senka Hitomi
Summary: When the genius of Konoha returns from a mission in a semi-comatose state, it is up to his teammate to delve into the depths of his mind and pull him back out. But the dangers of the mind are many, and the road to finding him may be more difficult than she could ever imagine...
1. A Singular Problem

Disclaimer: Naruto and all its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

_The lights flicker, dim, dimmer, until, at last, they are no more than a spark._

* * *

Ino Yamanaka had not expected to be called to the Hokage's office that morning. She had returned only two days ago from a rather grueling mission. Today was one of her rare days off, both from the typical obligations of her duty as a shinobi and from her work at her parent's shop.

So, when the missive came, she could already tell that something was not right.

She made her way carefully down the hallway to the Hokage's office, passing a sea of somber faces as she did. They all carried the same expression of grim determination, and a few caught her gaze sympathetically before looking away.

Her pace quickened instinctively.

It was only when she had almost reached the office that she began to get an idea of the extent of the problem. Just outside the door stood the quivering figure of her teammate, his wide face blanched sheet white. When she approached, he looked at her with an expression of sheer animal terror; his typical genial familiarity was all but gone. When she raised a questioning eyebrow, he gave no response, merely shook his head and looked away, too ashamed to meet her gaze.

Ino practically burst through the door.

Tsunade was hunched over her desk, her head pressed between her palms. In front of her laid a single sheet of paper, what looked to be a mission report. She didn't look up as Ino entered the room.

"Come in, and close the door behind you." Tsunade beckoned her forward with a fatigued gesture. Ino did as she was told, shutting the door with a resounding click.

When Tsunade looked up, Ino almost didn't recognize her. The Hokage always appeared somewhat frazzled, but Ino had never seen her look so… _despairing_. Worry was etched deep into her face, forming lines across her forehead and around her mouth where it was pursed in consternation.

"Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade gazed at her, assessing.

"Ino… your work with the Interrogation Unit. How has it been going?"

Ino didn't see how that had any relevance to this situation – not that she knew what it was – but she wasn't about to question the Hokage.

"It's been going well, Tsunade-sama. Ibiki-san says I have a lot of potential, and that, with practice, I'll soon be up to my father's level."

The admission was painful, even if it was true. Ino's first few weeks of training in the Interrogation Division had been nothing short of excruciating. Every facet of the Interrogation building and the job itself was a reminder of her father, and the gaping absence his death had left in her life.

"Good, good…" Tsunade looked away from her again, her eyes flickering down to the paper on her desk. When she didn't look up after a few moments, Ino ventured to take a step forward.

"Tsunade-sama… if you don't mind my asking… what is this about?"

Tsunade looked up at her question, almost as if she were only just noticing her. After a few moments of silent consideration, she stood up.

"Follow me."

* * *

The room was one Ino had never seen before. Buried deep in the heart of the Konoha Hospital, it was large and virtually empty, with vast white walls that gave it the air of a holding cell.

Tsunade turned to her assistant, Shizune.

"Tell them to bring him."

Ino grew more nervous by the minute. Was Tsunade about to have her perform an interrogation? While she had been diligent in her training, she was sure there were other people who were much more qualified to handle such a task. And if it was an interrogation, why in the world would they conduct it in the hospital of all places?

Ino was not given much time to question – Shizune returned within moments, and all of Ino's reservations fell away the instant she realized who "he" was.

If nothing else, the wild hair was instantly recognizable. At first, Ino wasn't sure what to think. But then she really looked at him, and the panic was so overwhelming that she almost couldn't breathe.

Physically, he appeared to be fine. His skin was, perhaps, a shade paler than usual, but otherwise, he had no injuries, and looked to be in perfect health.

It was his eyes, she realized. His eyes were wrong.

They were open, but it was as if he saw nothing. Gone were the calculating black beads with their fathomless depths. They were glazed over, utterly devoid of any form of awareness.

Ino shot forward, a cry escaping her lips, but Tsunade's strong hand closed around her upper arm, anchoring her in place. Ino fought against her grip, but it was to no avail – it was rock solid.

"Ino, I need you to be calm."

"But…" Ino refused to give up her struggle. Why would Tsunade not just let her go to him? "Shikamaru... what happened to him? Who did this? We've got to do something, we can't just—"

"Ino." The authoritative force of Tsunade's voice was enough to make Ino stop thrashing.

"What happened?" The words came out softly, broken, barely more than a whisper.

"We don't know. Chouji has reported to us that he was captured by some enemy-nin, but by the time the team was able to rescue him, he was already in this state."

"Is he…" Ino was unable to finish the sentence.

"He is alive." Tsunade emphasized the word, and Ino relaxed in her grip. "But his mind is… badly damage. We have no idea what they did to him."

Slowly, rationality returned. The pieces were beginning to click together in Ino's head; she was no Shikamaru, but she was smart enough to put two and two together.

"You want me to figure out what's wrong. To enter his mind."

Tsunade didn't look at her, but her face said enough.

"I was hesitant to ask, because I know he is your teammate, and it is an emotional matter for you." Tsunade gazed at him as she spoke, watched as the two medics that had accompanied him in eased him into a sitting position on the floor. "But the truth is, you are the only one who can do this. We need the skills you to possess if we can even remotely hope to retrieve him."

"I… are you sure?"

"I have to be." Tsunade frowned grimly. "We need him, Ino. You and Chouji know that better than anyone."

Ino could not deny the truth in that. Shikamaru was the Leaf's best strategist, a true genius, even if he was lazy.

"What if I…"

"If you fail, you fail. I know I am asking much of you. And none of us know the extent of the damage. It may be that you will not even be able to penetrate the outermost layer. And, of course, if it is an issue of your own safety, you are to get out as quickly as possible. I will not lose two valuable shinobi in the effort to save one."

Ino swallowed dryly.

"How soon?"

Tsunade looked at her gravely.

"As soon as you feel you are ready."

* * *

_In the darkness, a candle sparks to life. For one brief shining instant, it glows, but then is extinguished. _

_He is returned to darkness._

* * *

__**A/N: **Hello, dearies!

I've been itching to write a new ShikaIno for quite some time now, and this little plot idea practically bashed me over the head a few days ago. I've become increasingly fascinated by the Yamanaka clan's jutsu, and I wanted to write a ShikaIno that played with that a little. So here goes!

I realize this first chapter is rather short, but the following chapters are going to be much longer. This is just a bit of a teaser for the story to come.

Also, just to address this before I get started, though I do plan to write this with ShikaIno as the main pairing, it is going to be very Ino-centric for the majority of the narrative. So if you don't get a lot of ShikaIno in this first part, don't be surprised.

Anyway, hope you all are intrigued, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

- Senka Hitomi


	2. Still Waters Run Deep

_Something stirs. He moves a finger, wanting to stretch toward it, but… no. It is only a glimmer of false hope, a figment of his imagination._

* * *

Ino entered the room alone. Taking measured steps, she crossed to the center to sit in front of him.

Shikamaru was slumped exactly as they had left him, unresponsive. His gaze should have met hers when she sat down, but it failed to see her, utterly blank. The dark eyes, normally so very alive, looked…

She couldn't bring herself to say what it was they looked like.

Ino almost stretched out a hand, itching to touch his cheek, just to ascertain that he was, in fact, still alive. But then it occurred to her that the entire process was being observed, and her hand fell back to her side, lingering in the air for only the tiniest instant. This wasn't the time for foolish sentimentality. Tsunade-sama had given her a job, and she was duty-bound to fulfill it.

Taking a deep breath, she began the seals. Her hands moved through them fluidly, practiced from a hundred times of doing this very thing in training. Her hand shook only the slightest bit when she raised it to his forehead.

Ino's eyes snapped open, and it took her a moment to reorient herself.

She silently ran through her basic training: every mind was different, but most had the same basic structure: an outer layer, where all the superficial knowledge was kept; a middle layer, where the more complex goals and emotions were stored; and finally a well-hidden inner layer, replete with the person's closest kept secrets. It occasionally presented itself in different ways, but essentially, it was always the same.

Ino blinked at her surroundings, wondering if she'd made some kind of serious error.

_Where _am_ I?_

The view that met her eyes was nothing like she had anticipated. While she had seen people whose outer layer was an open landscape, this was…

_What… is this place?_

A white sky stretched above her, unbroken by even a single cloud. Below it, a vast expanse of water stretched out in all directions, reflecting the milky sky back upon itself with an eerie glow. The only visible piece of land was the island on which Ino now found herself, which was little more than a hill of white sand.

Beyond her, not so much as a single ripple disturbed the water's surface.

Ino did a quick circle around the island, but the view was the same from every side. Everywhere, that endless pearlescent sea, mirroring the sky above it.

Ino had to repress a shiver. What kind of a place was this, to be a layer of someone's mind? Most people's minds were so cluttered, even on the surface level, which was often the calm before the storm that was the innermost layer.

It struck her then, the strangeness of this place and its possible meaning.

_What if this isn't how it normally is?_

That thought scared her more than the entire barren horizon.

Leaning down, she picked up some of the sand, letting it run through her fingers. It fell away quickly, sliding soundlessly back onto the surface of the island. When the last of it tumbled from her palm, she examined it again.

It was as though not a single grain had been disturbed.

Making a quick loop around the surface of the island, she quickly discovered that the sand always remained the same. No footprints followed her; even when she kicked the sand, the perfect dome returned.

Frustrated, Ino flopped to the ground, running a hand through her hair.

"I wasn't trained for _this_." She muttered.

It wasn't as though she was new to the idea of entering someone's mind. Even before her father's passing, she had been working a little with the Interrogation Unit – albeit not with any consistency – learning his techniques, figuring out how she could use her own skills to extract information. Ibiki had been slightly hesitant to formalize her training after the war, but Ino had insisted. Regardless of the dangers it entailed, she knew in her heart of hearts that it was what her father would have wanted. It was what _she _wanted.

And she was good at it. In the short months she'd been working, she had become one of the most requested interrogators in the village. And while it could be terrifying, entering the mind of stranger, there was also an element of challenge to it. Every mind was like a puzzle – she just needed the right components to solve it. Once you had the basic formula, it was only a matter of figuring out the various iterations.

But this… she threw a handful of sand out at the water, but it was like she hadn't thrown it at all. It made no impact on the surface, and when she looked back to where she had run her hands through the sand, there were no lines.

Standing up again, Ino gazed out at the sea around her.

She was _going _to figure this out.

* * *

Choji sat by the Hokage's side, his hands pressed so hard against the sill of the window that all the blood had drained from his knuckles.

"How long has it been?"

Tsunade let out a punctuated sigh.

"It's only been three minutes since the last time you asked me."

Choji blanched, lowering his head.

"I apologize, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade nodded distractedly. It wasn't as though she could chastise the boy. Truth be told, she was just as nervous as he was, she just wasn't at liberty to display it.

It wasn't as though she had expected this to be a simple process. She'd heard stories about this sort of ailment before – it rarely ended well. But she couldn't afford to think that this was like all the stories she'd heard. It just couldn't be.

Her fist clenched reflexively. She couldn't lose _another _one.

Each minute that ticked by seemed like an eternity. Every minute flicker of movement registered in Tsunade's mind; she was ready to spring at the first sign of progress.

_I have to be calm_, she reminded herself. _There's a reason I trusted Ino to do this. Ibiki has told me she's the best there is, and she _knows_ Shikamaru. I trust her. She'll make it out. She'll make it out, and she'll bring Shikamaru back with her._

_She has to._

* * *

There was no sun to mark the passage of time, but Ino was fairly certain she'd been at it for hours, circling, kicking, yelling Shikamaru's name, at first by itself and then followed by a stream of colorful language.

None of it seemed to be helping. It only angered her more when she realized that perhaps all of this was purposeful, a mechanism to keep out nosy teammates with powerful clan jutsu. That wouldn't surprise her in the least. She could just see Shikamaru's smug face, could perfectly picture the bastard's wry grin as she railed at him with every ounce of anger in her being…

…_blank eyes staring at her, unseeing._

The brief memory quickly silenced her anger.

Refocusing, Ino walked out onto the water, balancing on the surface.

She moved farther out, allowing herself to explore further but always keeping an eye on the island. She didn't want to find herself completely stranded.

The water – if she could even call it that – was completely opaque. When she touched it, her finger disappeared beneath the surface.

"Baka, what _have_ you done?"

The question echoed out into the air, unanswered.

Ino paced the water's surface. She had officially run out of ideas from her standard training. This was like no mind she had ever seen before. That, perhaps, was what frustrated her most – Shikamaru was her teammate! The whole reason Tsunade had sent her on this mission was because she supposedly knew him. A lot of good that was doing now…

Ino stopped, frozen by the thought.

_Am I really _that _much of an idiot?_

She had been approaching it completely wrong! She had been treating this like any other one of her hundred puzzles, a simple cipher, unlocked with a key.

But this was _Shikamaru_.

Of course it was like no mind she had ever seen. Shikamaru was a genius. She ought to be lucky that this layer hadn't killed her outright. Most geniuses wouldn't have hesitated to barb the first layer of the mind, preventing any unwanted invaders. It was all there in the basic training: the more complex the person, the more detailed the layers of the mind. It reminded her of something her father had once said about Shikaku.

"The man has a mind like a steel trap." He had groused, recounting the one unpleasant experience he'd had in trying to work with Shikaku's mind. "And, believe me, in his case, that's not just an expression."

Ino shook her head. She was going to figure this out. She just had to think like Shikamaru.

Well, what would he expect from an invader in his head? He'd expect a shinobi, that much was certain. He would know to keep the first layer simple, to make it utterly impossible for even someone who didn't know him…

And then it clicked.

Ino looked back at the island, looked up at the white sky above. The sand… it didn't matter one bit – that was why it always returned. But the sky and the water… _those _were the keys.

After all, she thought, where was Shikamaru constantly? Lying on his back, out in some field, cloud-gazing. His mind, constantly stuck in the clouds.

So, that was where he was.

But she couldn't simply get to the sky. _That _was where the water came in; why else would there be such a perfect mirror?

And he'd expect a shinobi. That was the final piece.

Taking a deep breath, Ino prayed that she was right, and released the chakra suspending her feet on the surface.

* * *

_There is a glimmer, like sunlight cast on the water._

_The candle flickers again, the faintest flame singeing the darkness._

* * *

_A/N: Hello everyone! Okay, so I know I said the following chapters were going to be much longer, but I must amend. They're going to get increasingly longer as the layers of the mind grow more complex. Just so ya know._

_I just have to say, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all my readers. Such an incredible response for the first chapter of a story. Have I mentioned how happy I am to be writing a multi-chapter ShikaIno again? Special thanks to _bakaindisguise, lethalshikaino, SeiraXD, SultanaV, HolaitsCiara, The Clawed Butterfly, Tsuki'sLullaby, Kari Hitsugaya, little-hina, Aki-child _and my amazing, fantastic long-lost twin _Wroathe_! You're all wonderful, and if I didn't respond to your review personally, I apologize profusely, and will try to do better next chapter. _

_Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you thought, and as always, happy reading!_

_- Senka Hitomi_


	3. Caverns of Light and Shadow

_The candle pulses in the blackness, seeking its own kind. But there, in isolation, there are no others to be found. _

* * *

Aching all over and completely soaked, Ino sat up, blinking as she adjusted to the sudden change in lighting. Where the light had been almost blinding up above, she was now in almost complete darkness – the only faint signs of light emanated from somewhere far in the distance.

_Trust it to Shikamaru._ She thought wryly. _Only he would think of something so completely simple. Practically the first thing you learned in training as a Genin is the technique for balancing on the water. For an experienced shinobi, it's second-nature. They would never think of actually entering the water. _

Ino tried to focus on her new surroundings, but her head was still spinning from the fall. It took a few moments before she had even a semblance of clarity, and even when her eyes adjusted, it revealed precious little.

She scowled.

"I swear, when I find you, Shikamaru…"

She had only mumbled the statement, but she stopped when she realized that her voice was being amplified and carried down the thin corridor ahead of her. It bounced off the walls and away from her, slowly fading into nothingness.

"Hello?"

At her normal volume, the echo was practically deafening. Ino cringed at the sound, half-covering her ears.

She waited for a moment, listening. Above her, a few drops of water dripped down, hitting the floor with a distinct echo. She held her hand out, trying to get some idea of where it was coming from, but to no avail.

Though she had no idea of the ceiling's clearance, she decided to risk standing. Using a hand to balance, she tried to push herself upward, but she instantly crumpled to the ground, a wave of pain radiating up her arm. Her quiet shriek bounced out and away into the distance.

She felt her wrist – it was tender in several spots, bruised at the least, and possibly fractured.

_I must have fallen on it,_ she realized. _But then again… I'm not actually here_. _I shouldn't be feeling physical injuries. _

This was worse than she thought.

Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, she lifted herself up, using her good hand for leverage. That knowledge would do her no good if she didn't figure out where _here_ was.

She put a hand on the wall near where she had fallen. Water trickled down in rivulets, redirecting over and around her hand. The wall beneath was smooth as glass, no doubt worn down by the steady flow of water.

Ino traced her fingers along the length of the wall, treading carefully toward the faint source of light that she'd seen earlier. At first, there was no change; the wall remained smooth, and she had no trouble finding her footing, though the floor was slightly slippery where she had fallen. But as she progressed, the wall grew increasingly rough beneath her fingers, jagged like rock. Finally, she had to pull her hands away, fearing that she would draw blood on her fingers if she continued to drag them across the wall.

The light too was growing brighter by the moment: not the blinding brilliance of the island world above, but more of a glowing luminescence. At first, Ino thought she might be reaching the end of a tunnel, but then she turned a corner.

She had to blink a few times to clear her sight, to confirm that she was actually seeing what she thought she was seeing. But there it was, clear as day.

In front of her lay the most expansive collection of rough gems she had ever seen in one place. From cracks in the wall, bits of ruby, emerald, sapphire and countless others shone out, interspersed with the rock – some of them, Ino didn't even recognize.

The ones closest to her were the roughest, only bits of color sticking out here and there. The little polished surface that showed through was dull.

Ino put a hand on the wall, but immediately pulled it back. Touching the rock was like someone had sent a shock through her fingertips, straight up her spine. Her head was fuzzy, and for the barest moment, she felt as though she were elated and utterly despondent at the same time.

When she finally recovered her mental faculties, she stared at the wall again, trying to make some sense of the sensation. There did not appear to be an electrical charge running through the rock, but she did notice that the place where she'd placed her hand was an intersection, a place where two different types of stone met and merged. Testing a theory, she stuck just one finger out.

Touching only one type of stone was similar to the feeling she'd experienced just moments before, but this time, she didn't feel as though someone were trying to rip her brain apart from the inside. It just felt… muddled. She got a vague sense of despair, like someone had blown a grey fog all around her, obscuring her vision and sapping the strength from her limbs. It took great effort to peel her hand away from the wall.

_So each one is different._

Shaking the last remnants of stupor away from herself, Ino continued down the wall, to the place where the gems were more exposed, smoothed down by some unseen force. As she progressed through the cavern, they began to reflect the light, producing flickering images that faded like phantasms. She tried to catch a glimpse of one, but it slipped away from her, just a trick of the light.

Or so she thought, until she reached the second bend in the cavern.

Here, the gems did not merely reflect the light; they reflected images that weren't there. Shadows of faces played across their surfaces, cast in gold and green, red and blue and darkest black. And in the shadows, she began to see things she recognized.

In a smaller red gem, she watched a battle played out, watched as some shinobi succeeded while others made fatal mistakes. Some faces were familiar, but only had a passing recognition, names she had seen on a mission report somewhere.

She moved onto the next one. Reflected in the surface of a large green crystal, she watched Asuma and Kurenai's son take his first steps, toddling across the floor before falling back with a snaggle-toothed grin. In the background, Kurenai grinned with pride, tilting her head and mouthing words so that she seemed to be speaking directly to Ino, but no sound came out.

_Like she would be if she were speaking to Shikamaru. _Ino realized. So did that mean these were memories?

In the same instant, she dismissed the idea. These couldn't be memories; Kurenai's son was mere months old, nowhere near walking yet.

So then… what were these?

* * *

Tsunade stared through the glass, having mostly adjusted to the sound of Choji's soft snores. He had fallen asleep in the corner, slumped across the chair and supported by the wall. Tsunade had tried to send him home multiple times during the day, but each time, he refused more vehemently, insisting that he was going to be here when Ino and Shikamaru returned. Tsunade couldn't help but admire his optimism – though she would continue to encourage him to leave the hospital for a short time, it wasn't her first priority to dash his hopes.

Listening to the even rhythm of his snoring only reinforced how tired she was. Tsunade felt as though she'd been awake for days. It had truly only been about twelve hours, but neither Ino nor Shikamaru had so much as twitched, and she was starting to get anxious. She had known going in that this would not be an easy process, but…

Her thoughts were disrupted by the opening of a door, and a short, imperious figure strode through, her unruly hair waving gently as she walked.

"So?"

Tsunade suppressed a sigh; while Anko Mitarashi was excellent at her job, her timing was often… less than ideal.

"We've not received anything in the last twelve hours, but that's not to say that she hasn't had successes. The monitors show her brain function is normal, and his is relatively unchanged from what it was before she started."

Anko pulled up a chair, raising an eyebrow as she looked at the pair in the next room.

"_Relatively_ unchanged?"

_Trust her to catch that_, Tsunade thought wearily.

"We've had a few small spikes in activity."

"And you don't think that's significant?!" Anko practically shrieked, and Tsunade glared at her, gesturing at Choji, who merely grunted and turned in his sleep.

Anko frowned, but she lowered her voice. "And you don't think it's important that he's showing spikes in brain activity?"

"Of course it is," Tsunade muttered tiredly, massaging her forehead. Twelve hours doing nothing but staring through glass was beginning to make her head ache. "But what are we supposed to do about it? Anko, you work with the Intelligence Division. You know as well as I that that girl in there is the only one who is going to be able to make any sense of what we're seeing out here. And she's rather busy at the moment."

"Yes," Anko acknowledged slowly, "but we can't sit around waiting for her forever. You give her an ultimatum?"

"Only vaguely."

"So how long are you actually giving her?"

Tsunade paused, unsure if she wanted to admit this, even to herself.

"Three days."

"That means we're one-sixth of the way there." Anko calculated, glancing at Tsunade to confirm her assessment.

Tsunade merely nodded.

"And if she doesn't get out in that time?"

Tsunade flexed her hands against the window sill, her mouth settling into a grim line.

"Then things get complicated."

* * *

_Possibilities. _The answer came unbidden to her; she realized it before she had really even processed all the evidence. For a moment, she felt as though Shikamaru were standing behind her, whispering the answer in her ear.

Ino looked at the other gems, each one a short scenario playing itself out. Some she was able to make sense of, but others were so abstract as to be impossible, mere snatches of images repeating over and over. Each one was a picture of what might be, the thousand scenarios that the genius of the Hidden Leaf was playing out at any given moment. The rougher gems were mere emotional possibilities – happy ending, sad ending. The gems she saw now were more focused, more tempered. Time and experience had made them sharper, more defined.

There was one that captured Ino's attention above all, and she couldn't quite place why she kept coming back to it, other than that it unsettled her. The scene was simple enough – seen through Shikamaru's eyes, it was a conversation with Temari of the Sand. She said something scornful, or so it seemed, and then watched as he replied, responding with a short bark of laughter. Then she laid a hand on his shoulder, murmuring something unintelligible, and she… _smiled_. It was the smile that made Ino's stomach flip, the same way it always had when she had heard Asuma-sensei praise the technique of another kunoichi of their year. There was something… wrong about it, though she was not ready to admit what it was.

For a moment, an irrational anger came over her. What right did Temari have to be smiling at him that way? Was _she _the one probing the depths of his mind to save the idiot? Before she could allow rationality to return, Ino's hand clenched into a fist and she threw a blow at the wall, temporarily forgetting the sheer insanity of the action.

As she swung, it occurred to her that punching a wall of solid rock was at least going to bruise her knuckles, if not worse, not to mention the fact that she'd been stupid enough to use the hand that was already injured. But it was too late to pull the punch, so she gritted her teeth against the impact, willing herself through the pain.

Her fist connected, and for an instant, she felt an excruciating pain, but then it drained and her arm went numb, just as it had the first time she'd touched the rock. But this time, she was not overwhelmed by the sensation – instead, the numbness spread up her arm, until slowly, she began to feel herself fading, as if the act of touching the wall was slowly causing her to dwindle from existence. Slowly, she began to forget who she was, where she was, ceasing to be anything but air and solid, a loose lattice of barely coherent connections.

"_Ino?" Shikamaru's baritone was clear. _

"_What did you call me?" Temari's response was immediate, and decidedly not happy._

Ino recognized those voices – and in an instant, she was flying back from the wall, landing on her wrist again, and she cried out in pain, sharply reintroduced to reality.

_Was I… in the possibility?_ Her head swam, and she cradled her wrist, wishing she knew why physical injuries were manifesting this strongly. But even the pain was not enough to keep her from wondering about what had just happened. She had touched the possibility, and she had begun to fade. Like in that reality, she was…

_In that world, he was forgetting me_, she realized. _But why would it even matter?_

"Damn it, Shikamaru." She rested her head on her knee. "I don't understand you at all."

For a few moments, she just sat on the ground, trying to catch her breath. From her new vantage point, she could see that the gems lined the cavern from floor to ceiling, going beyond even where she could see. As she stared, she began to notice veins in the rock, milky lines running through the field of light and dark.

Standing slowly, she traced the main line with her eyes, quickening her pace as she followed it down the corridor. The discovery quickened the flow of blood through her veins – something about this felt right. How had she not noticed it before?

After she walked for what seemed like hours, she found the place where the lines converged. An enormous crack in the rock revealed a gem that was almost clear, and reflected light like a mirror. Careful not to get too close, Ino surveyed the fissure.

In the bright surface, two figures sat facing one another, one pale and dark-headed, the other pale and blonde. It took Ino a few seconds to realize that she what she was looking at was not some projection of the future, but…

…_now._

As she neared the rock, she saw her own reflection as well – her green eyes looked hollow, swallowed by dark circles, and she had a cut at her temple that was slowly leaking blood. She put her good hand to her forehead; sure enough, it came away sticky with blood.

Hoping this was not just another trick of her imagination, Ino tentatively stuck her hand out, bloodstained fingers touching the smooth reflective surface.

* * *

_In the darkness, the candle brightens, its own light reflected back upon itself in the smooth surface of a mirror. _

* * *

_A/N: If you're reading this, you're a fantastic person, because I really can't believe that someone would still be reading this after the ridiculous amount of time I took to update. Thank you so very much. _

_That said, I'm really, really sorry about how long it took. If you need further explanation, just go take a gander at my profile. I'm not going to say that this chapter means I'm back to writing and regularly updating because, much as I would love to be, that probably isn't true. But I am going to try my hardest to work on my stories and keep them updated for my readers. _

_Anyway, I hope you all like this chapter. I lost my notes (aka packed them in one of the boxes with all my dorm stuff, which is now many miles away), so I had to rebuild a little from memory. Still, I think I remembered most of it. As always, I love to hear what you all think._

_Thanks to _Airi-Shirokuro, little-hina, The Clawed Butterfly, kiwi4me, SeiraXD, Xo56oX, SultanaV, LittleStars08, BleedingSaro, Alyssa009, chikitets1016, cozieatbrains, Otowa Nekozawa _and especially the anonymous _Guest _for your reviews. You all deserve hugs and copious amounts of baked goods for the amazing things you say about my stories and the encouragement you've given me. I can't thank you enough. _

_- Senka_

_OH. And to the person on tumblr who wrote a post about this story a while back (if you're still reading this) and to all the people who have liked and reblogged it, that seriously made my week when I saw it._


	4. The Mirror

_Even as the candle brightens, the darkness redoubles, threatening closer every moment._

* * *

It was early that morning when a pair of hands roughly shook Tsunade back into reality. The Hokage's office was pitch black, save for the barest sliver of moonlight, and given the evidence, Tsunade's gut reaction was to throw a punch at the ill-fated owner of those hands. Fortunately, the sight of her wild-eyed assistant was enough to stay her hand.

"Tsunade-sama." Shizune was ghost pale, and her hands shook as she removed them from Tsunade's shoulder. "There's something you need to see, immediately."

* * *

For a moment, it didn't seem as though anything had happened at all, but then Ino noticed it – the stillness.

It was not as though the cavern had been filled with noise, but this place was eerily quiet. Not the barest hint of sound echoed through the place; even the sound of her breathing was subdued, quieted as soon as it escaped her mouth and nostrils.

Taking her hand off what had been the rock, Ino took a step back. All around her was white, stretching in every direction, as far as the eye could see. Except, of course, for the object in front of her.

The mirror was not ornate. It had no frame, just a simple glass, seemingly suspended in thin air before her. It had rounded edges, and was just the right height for Ino to be able to see her full reflection. What she glimpsed there was not what she expected.

The girl who stared out at her from the mirror was a version of herself that she was not sure she had ever been. She had bright eyes that danced with laughter, and a sharp face that seemed to change from menacing to amused within seconds.

Ino took a look at herself, her _real_ self, outside the mirror. Her hair was messy, spilling out of her ponytail and sticking to her forehead where the blood was beginning to congeal. She felt the bags beneath her eyes, the signs of sleeplessness and stress wearing away at her flesh. When she lifted her hand, her wrist hurt like all hell, stinging as though she had stuck it into a hive of wasps.

So she hadn't gone entirely crazy – she was certainly _not _the immaculate girl she saw in the mirror.

Turning away, she tried to look around, but the sight stung her eyes. There was nothing to focus her gaze upon, just layer upon layer of white.

Ino put a hand to her forehead where it was injured. Immediately, she could feel the bruises developing around the open wound; when she drew her hand away, a few stray drops of blood came with it, dripping off her fingertips and onto the ground, where they disappeared, sinking into the white as though they had never existed.

Not sure whether to be terrified or simply confused, Ino turned wearily back to the mirror.

She fought to suppress a gasp at the sight that met her.

The image had changed, and this time it was certainly not a reflection. But it was still undeniably her.

Slumped on the floor was a limp figure, long blonde hair splayed out around her head. Though it was hard to tell, Ino thought she could detect the faintest hint of breath leaving her chest.

She had never seen it herself, but the scenario was easy enough to recognize. After all, there was a reason that on their very first day of training, Asuma-sensei had assigned Shikamaru to care for her body when she had to use her jutsu.

Still, the sight sent a shock through her.

_Is… is this how it always seems? Am I really this defenseless?_

Impulsively, she raised a hand to touch the glass. Considering the last two layers of her teammate's mind, it wasn't entirely implausible that this was a similar test – find the way out through whatever reflective surface happened to be on hand.

But when she reached out, her hand hit solid glass, cool to the touch beneath her fingers, but in no way extraordinary. There was no strange sensation like she'd felt with the gems, no shock, no sudden insight. It was just… a mirror?

* * *

Tsunade watched the monitor, frowning slightly.

"Her vitals seem to be steady."

"Yes," Shizune conceded, but her voice hemmed with barely checked panic, "but Tsunade-sama… she's _bleeding_."

Tsunade moved around the two figures seated in the center of the room. Neither of them had moved for almost nineteen hours, and yet one had blood slowly trickling down her forehead.

"And she doesn't even seem to feel it," Shizune added, gesturing at the gradually drying trail it had left across her temple and cheek. "If she can't feel that, who is to say that she's able to feel anything? What if this is a permanent change? She could—"

Tsunade shook her head gently.

"We're not done yet."

"Tsunade-sama!" All reservation aside, Shizune had transitioned to a full-blown screech. "She could be dying!"

Tsunade leaned closer to Ino, carefully schooling her expression. In all honesty, Shizune's concerns were more than valid, but if Tsunade was going to convince her of anything, she couldn't waver.

She examined the cut. It was bleeding heavily, but that was more a matter of placement than depth. It was a short, shallow cut – nothing life-threatening.

"Shizune," Tsunade turned around, meeting her apprentice's gaze levelly. "I understand your concern, and I acknowledge its validity. However, who are we to say that pulling her out now to treat what appears to be only a minor wound won't hurt her further?"

Shizune began to stammer a response, but then thought better of it.

"If we try to bring her back now," Tsunade continued, "we may not cause any damage to her whatsoever. But we might. We might also lose our only chance at getting back our best strategist."

Shizune turned her gaze back to Ino and Shikamaru. Though her panic seemed to have faded, deep-seated worry still shone in her dark eyes.

"I suppose you are right, Tsunade-sama."

"However…"

Shizune's head snapped back around.

"That doesn't mean that we shouldn't monitor them more closely. If you see any other signs of injury, I want to be notified immediately. Particularly if it appears to be serious. If there are any spikes in the vitals whatsoever, I expect to hear about it."

Shizune looked noticeably relieved.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

Though Tsunade offered her apprentice a wan smile as she left the room, worry sat like a rock in the pit of her stomach.

Injuries sustained from… what? Ino hadn't physically gone anywhere. So why were physical injuries manifesting themselves? In all her years as a medic, Tsunade had never seen anything like it.

With grim resolve, she left the hospital to seek out someone she knew might have a better answer.

* * *

Ino withdrew her hand, willing the frustration in her gut to dissipate, but it continued to rise, clawing through her throat and chest.

Finally, she just couldn't control it.

"What am I supposed to do, you sick sadist? Do you think this is funny? Trapping me in this labyrinth you call a mind?" She slumped to her knees, pounding her uninjured fist against the ground.

"Is this some kind of test? Because, if it is, I'm done! I concede, you win, okay? I'm tired of dealing with you and this ridiculous deathtrap, because this just isn't worth it!"

A sudden image of Shikamaru's lifeless eyes flashed through her mind, and she instantly regretted it. Angry as she was… she shook her head to clear it. She just had to calm down.

When she looked up, the image in the "mirror" had changed yet again.

While the other two had been immediately identifiable, Ino had difficulty recognizing the image when she first looked at it. The girl staring back at her looked nothing like her. Though her hair was the same color, it was limp; where Ino's normally vibrant green eyes should have been, dull grayish orbs stared out at her.

Perhaps the most shocking change was her figure itself – the Ino in the "mirror" was little more than skin and bones.

Ino lifted her hand to the glass a second time; her nails scratched the surface, but it didn't leave a mark. Hollow eyes stared back at her.

.Slowly, a hint of doubt started to claw at her. What if this wasn't the way through? What if this was merely a wrong turn, a trap for any errant intruder?

What if these white walls were no more than a prison?

For the first time, Ino began to fear that she had made an enormous mistake.

* * *

_Though the dark pushes in, the flame gathers strength._

* * *

_A/N: You all are... simply amazing._ **20**_ reviews last chapter. I'm astounded and flattered, and just... wow. Thank you all._

_I realize this chapter's a little short, but rest assured, it's part one of two. _

_Once again, I cannot thank you all enough for the amazing reviews/faves/alert adds I've gotten. I really appreciate all the support this story has received, and I hope you continue to enjoy it! As always, leave a review and let me know your thoughts._

_- Senka Hitomi_


	5. The Mirror, Pt 2

_In the darkness, something sluggish stirred. He could almost lift a finger, and his ears were ringing with a familiar voice. Something shrill and irritating, but definitely familiar. A panel in front of him flashed, the warm, steady glow of a candle. For a moment, something like recollection touched him, like a hand pressed to his temple. _

* * *

Ino sat with her head against her knees, staring at the floor beneath her. She'd forgotten how long she'd been sitting there – in this strange half-reality, time seemed irrelevant.

And she was trapped.

She had been foolish, she realized, to ever think that she was capable enough for this mission. To think that after only a few months of training, she was prepared to take on the mind of a genius.

But then again, she had been so sure. So sure, that even with her disadvantage, there was one thing she could be absolutely certain of, and that was her ability to understand her teammate.

She had known Shikamaru since they were children; born only one day apart, it had been a running joke between the Nara and Yamanaka clans for years that Shikamaru couldn't have gotten rid of Ino if he'd tried. He had been easy enough to understand as a child; sleepy, disgruntled, yes, but ultimately compliant, he'd often been a reluctant participant in Ino's childhood games.

Even during their first year at the Academy, they'd been relatively close. Sure, Shikamaru had found a new friend in Choji, and Ino had become increasingly obsessed with things Shikamaru deemed girly, but Ino still knew where to go to seek out a playmate when she needed one.

Then, Sasuke had happened.

That was the worst part. She knew, deep in her gut, that this wasn't just Shikamaru's stubborn mind keeping her out. If anything, she had facilitated the divide between them. It had been her fault that they'd grown apart – in her sudden obsession with a different dark-haired genius, she'd let her childhood friendship slip into the shadows.

Sasuke was motivated, intriguing, cool – everything that Shikamaru had never been. For his part, Shikamaru had never really done anything to save their friendship either. When Ino had been redirected, he hardly seemed to have noticed, more content to stay with their quieter, calmer teammate.

Sure, Ino had seen him in the intervening years. Family dinners and Academy functions were enough to at least keep them within one another's sights. But when she'd been assigned to his team, it hadn't been a happy reunion with an old friend: it was just another hindrance in her quest to win Sasuke over.

But she'd been forced to work with her team, forced to know them even when she was reluctant. She had learned that Chouji's eating wasn't just compulsive, it was also an effort to store chakra. She had learned that behind Shikamaru's laziness lay some sort of loyalty, some sort of protective instinct.

At least, she thought she had been learning.

Drowning in the myriad of missteps, one memory sprang unbidden to the forefront of Ino's mind. It was the first time they'd really seen Shikamaru's potential, sitting in the stands during their first Chuunin exams, watching him fight Temari. She had been so sure she had seen motivation in him then, so sure he was going to win, because he just _had_ to, had to prove that he wasn't just the lazy boy she'd always known him to be.

But then, of course, he'd forfeited. Choji was quick to point out that Ino, who had been boasting during the entire match about how well she knew her teammate, had been entirely wrong. Admittedly, in the chaos that had shortly followed, there hadn't been much time to think it over, but she had thought about it later, after he had broken the news to them that he had been the only one promoted during the entire ordeal.

She had been wrong, very wrong. And it made her nervous. Shikamaru was the one who had always caught her up to that point, cared for her when she was unconscious. If she didn't know him then… who was to say she ever knew him?

She'd tried to keep the concern inside, but as usual, it bubbled over and spilled out in the midst of one of their mission, when she'd yelled at Shikamaru for being too lazy to perform some simple task in setting up camp, and it had simply devolved from there. Suddenly, she had descended into yelling at him for never following through, while he sat in front of her, with the vaguely bemused look on his face as the only sign he was even listening.

When she finished, he had taken a moment to respond.

"Ino…" If she hadn't known better, she would have sworn there was a hint of concern in his voice. "It's not like I wanted to lose. If I'd thought it was possible to win, I would have. But when you're out of resources, sometimes you have to give up."

That was all he ever said on the matter. Within a few moments, it was like the outburst had never even happened, and Ino had lapsed back into uncomfortable silence. She'd wanted to say something more, but she'd found herself without anything else to say.

Lifting her head from her knees, Ino tried to clear her head and consider her current situation. Maybe she didn't know him as well as she thought, but she did know one thing.

Unlike her teammate, she was not one to just give up.

* * *

Mrs. Yamanaka was a thin woman, with a severe mouth that folded down just slightly at the corners. Where Ino was loud and brash, the elder Yamanaka played her cards close to her chest, not even expressing the barest hint of surprise when the Hokage herself showed up on her doorstep. As Tsunade met her gaze, she marveled at how two such stoic people as Inoichi and his wife could possibly have produced a daughter who was so bold and outspoken.

"May I help you, Tsunade-sama?" Mrs. Yamanaka gestured her inside, directing her to a seat in the parlor. A tray of freshly made tea was already sitting out, as if she had been expecting Tsunade's visit.

"I've come to ask you about your husband." Tsunade thought it best to cut straight to the chase. Mrs. Yamanaka was not a woman easily fooled, and she knew when she someone was dancing around a subject.

A raised eyebrow and a slight tightening of the mouth were the only signs of discomfort from the stoic woman. She cleared her throat.

"I will help as much as I am able, Tsunade-sama, but I'm afraid if it is mission information you are seeking, much of my husband's work was quite confidential."

Tsunade clucked dismissively.

"Be that as it may, I doubt you allowed your husband to keep secrets about his health from you."

That remark elicited a small smile from Mrs. Yamanaka. She took a quick sip of tea before she responded, her hands shaking slightly as she set the cup and saucer back on the table.

"True." Her mouth folded back into a thin line. "This has to do with my daughter, does it not?"

Tsunade frowned.

"We would have informed you sooner…"

"…but as a civilian, I am to be kept in the dark as much as possible." Mrs. Yamanaka shrugged lightly. "That is the way of things, after all. Even when my daughter is endangering her life."

Tsunade felt her temper rise, and she almost began to explain how important it was that this particular mission be kept as quiet as possible, but then she watched the woman in front of her for a moment. Mrs. Yamanaka's movements were stiff, and she did not let much slip past her calm façade, but there was pain in her gestures. Her husband had been gone no more than a year.

Tsunade swallowed.

"When your husband returned from interrogation missions, did he ever report physical injuries associated with the interrogations?"

Mrs. Yamanaka tilted her head slightly.

"That's a rather strange question."

"I'm aware," Tsunade grumbled.

"Well, he did…" Mrs. Yamanaka's gaze was distant, as if she were calculating. "But no, I'm not sure that's exactly right."

"What is it?"

"Well," she continued, "he didn't ever complain of it after we were married, but when he once told me that when he was younger, he occasionally got some rather severe headaches. There was one incident in particular…"

She paused, her brow furrowing.

"Yes?" Tsunade urged, trying not to sound as desperate as she was.

"He used to say that it only happened when he was dealing with a particular powerful mind. People who…" She made an indistinct gesture with her hands. "…pushed back. Tried to push him out of their minds, that is. Apparently, the worst experience he ever had trying to use his jutsu…"

Mrs. Yamanaka stopped and fixed Tsunade with a flat stare.

"…involved Shikaku Nara."

Tsunade crossed her arms, attempting not to look annoyed.

Mrs. Yamanaka sipped at her tea.

"Now, do you care to tell me what's happening to my daughter?"

* * *

Ino did a full circuit around the mirror – or, at the very least, what she assumed was a full circuit. The mirror seemed to move with her, always facing her. The reflections flickered, changing every few minutes. She had all but given up on trying to interpret the various iterations of herself, choosing instead to focus on what the mirror was, and how she could get past it.

She put a finger to the glass again. It didn't yield. She continued trying to shatter the glass, but that seemed like a thoroughly terrible idea. Considering the state of her right hand, she was not about to put it through more pain, and injuring the hand that was still intact was just stupid.

"I just have to get the right frame of mind." She reassured herself. "With Shikamaru, it will be something simple, but so simple it seems difficult."

As she mulled it over, she stared at the mirror, letting the images passing her by without really looking at them.

Until she saw something strange.

She watched for a few minutes, not really focusing on her own reflection, but on the one unwavering object in the image: the dark shadow, stretching across the floor.

_Doesn't it ever bother you, working with something that changes so easily?_ Ino had asked him, watching her own shadow as it preceded her in the road.

Shikamaru had shrugged.

_Shadows aren't that changeable. It's the people who change. The shadows just reflect what's going on within them. _

Ino had made a face.

_If that was your attempt at being profound, it was really lame._

But she'd thought about it later, wondered if it was true. Sometimes she felt like little more than a shadow, small and insignificant, barely more than a blurry outline of herself…

She crouched down and moved closer to the mirror, blinking as the reflection changed again. Still, the shadow hadn't changed.

Along the white floor, it stretched far back into a corner, receding until it was little more than a thin sliver.

But it was pointing somewhere.

Ino whirled around, looking for place it pointed, but the landscape was as blank as ever. In the light of her reality, there were no shadows.

She frowned slightly, turning back to the mirror. The shadow was still there, stretching obstinately into the distant.

Within a few moments, Ino knew what she needed to do.

Keeping her gaze locked firmly on the shadow in the mirror, she took a tentative step backward toward where the shadow should have been.

In the mirror, the shadow shrunk just the slightest bit.

Walking at an angle, Ino continued to travel backwards, watching as the shadow slowly shrunk.

The further away she got, the more the mirror seemed to focus. When she was no more than ten paces away, the reflections in the mirror had stopped changing, and a blurry figure stood on the shadow, her blonde hair framing her face messily, her temple sporting a red and brown blotch.

She allowed just the slightest hint of a smile to cross her face.

As she progressed, she got bolder, moving faster and faster, following the shadow. In the mirror, it was becoming little more than a sliver; a few more steps and it would be nothing at all.

She took one step, then another, and the shadow was gone, but there was something solid behind her.

Ino ran her hands along the surface of the wall, trying to suppress her excitement, lest this be nothing more than another trap.

But her hand closed around a knob, and she heard a creak.

She could have screamed with joy.

However, in her haste to back through the door, she failed to notice the lip at the bottom of the doorframe. Her heel caught, and she tumbled backward. Acting on pure instinct, she stuck her hands out behind her.

There was a sickening crack, and then darkness.

* * *

Shizune had almost finished her notes when she heard the crack. She had been circling the hospital room for the better part of an hour, making observations to report to Lady Tsunade when she returned. Despite the fact that she had covered every inch of the room, it took her a moment to recognize the source of the sound.

She had noted the swelling in the wrist, but at the time, it hadn't seemed like anything particularly severe. However, the purpling bruises that were now appearing, coupled with the lump that looked distinctly like a bone doing its best to break through the skin, were definitely cause for concern.

Abandoning her notes, Shizune rushed out the door, hoping Tsunade had not gone too far.

* * *

_The feeling of a reassuring hand receded just as quickly as it had appeared. In the semi-darkness, he put his head down, and watched the candlelight flicker._

* * *

_A/N: Well hello there! I hadn't forgotten about this, I swear. Just had to get my thoughts in order. I'm glad that I'm back to it now. It really is fun to write._

_Today's chapter is brought to you by a couple episodes from the original Naruto. They, along with a few other things, inspired me to get myself back in gear and get the next chapter out. _

_Also! I'm working on cover art for this story! I posted the lineart to my dA account today, and also to my fanwork tumblr, both of which can be found on my profile. If you're interested, please feel free to go check it out. _

_Thank you to my diligent reviewers: _scarlet letters in the snow, untouchable hexing witch, FFNRocks, Airi Shirokuro, Otowa Nekozawa, The Clawed Butterfly, Sayaka M, SultanaV, Guest, Ann, _and_ Medelie. _You all rock, and I really apologize for not getting this out sooner. And to all the fav/alert adders that I haven't heard from, thank you all as well! It always brightens my day to see a notification. _

_Well, I guess that's it! Until next time, please tell me what you think! I always like hearing from you all. _


	6. Interlude: The Places Between

_A shock, like a bolt of lightning, strikes out of the darkness. He jumps, sees the source as it flickers –_

_Her flame is dwindling._

* * *

When Choji returned to the hospital after a long night of restless sleep, he expected to find it much as he had left it: full of a tense silence, but otherwise docile and static.

What he found did not quite meet his expectations.

In the doorway of the room housing Shikamaru and Ino, a team of two medics stood like statues, listening to the orders of a frazzled Shizune. The Hokage's normally immaculate assistant had enormous dark circles ringing her eyes, and her black hair looked windswept. Her eyes swept over Choji as she bellowed orders, but she did not seem to see him. Only when he caught her elbow did she turn to him, her mouth curled into a snarl.

"What?" she snapped. Her expression softened as recognition sunk in, and she hastily corrected herself.

"Forgive me, I'm just a little stressed. What is it, Choji?"

Slightly cowed by Shizune's initial reaction, Choji answered with hesitance.

"I was just wondering what was going on."

Shizune frowned.

"I don't—" Her gaze suddenly became distant, and she yelled an order over Choji's head to a pale mouse of a man who had just come out of the room, who scrambled down the hallway and through a door.

She turned back to him, looking vaguely perturbed.

"What was I saying?"

"What's going on?" Choji pressed; one of the medics ducked into the room and quickly came back out, and as the medic passed him, Choji felt his stomach flip.

"I don't know that I can say, actually." Shizune said, her voice thick with fatigue. Up close, Choji could see that, in addition to the bags that encircled them, Shizune's eyes were bloodshot, as though she hadn't been sleeping.

"But… are they okay?" Choji tried not to sound desperate, but the words squeaked out. Medical confidentiality aside, these were his _teammates_ she was talking about.

Shizune glanced over his shoulder, as if looking for someone.

"You haven't seen Tsunade, have you?"

Choji couldn't tell whether she had purposefully circumvented his question, or just not heard it, but either way, he could tell he wouldn't be getting much information from Shizune unless he helped her.

"I haven't. Does someone need to go find her?"

"Would you?" The relief in her voice was palpable. "We need her here immediately."

No sooner had Choji nodded his agreement than Shizune was practically pushing him out the door, gushing her thanks. In a matter of moments, he was up the stairs and out the front doors of the hospital.

Setting off down the path, Choji could only hope that he would find the Hokage sooner rather than later.

* * *

_It was a garden. A flower garden. They were six years old, and she was twisting garlands while he lay beneath the tree, his eyes half-closed against the dappled sunlight that filtered through the leaves. The whole place was glowing with the radiance of mid-spring._

_She leaned down from her perch on the tree branch and dropped the garland, watching as it floated down to cover his mouth and ears, catching in his dark, tangled tufts of hair. His eyelids quivered and his nose twitched, until one lazy brown eye opened to stare up at her. In an attempt to remove the garland, he disturbed the pollen within one of the flowers, getting it caught up in his nostrils. _

_He sneezed. She giggled. _

"_Ino."_

_The exasperation in his voice only made her giggle more. _

"_Ino, why can't you just leave me alone?"_

_She dangled one of her unfinished garlands down toward him._

"_Because I like you, and you _never_ pay any attention to me."_

_The little boy frowned._

"_Ino, you know this isn't right. Why can't you just leave me alone?" _

_And suddenly, the voice had changed, and she wasn't looking down at a little boy, but at a full grown man, and he was smoking a cigarette, and the smoke was stinging her eyes. And she wasn't sitting above him either, but somewhere next to him, or maybe lying down, but she couldn't tell, because her wrist was stinging so badly, and her head just kept radiating pain, pain, pain…_

"_I-I… I don't know."_

"_Ino, why can't you just leave me alone?"_

_He growled the question this time, and it confused and upset her, because why was he growling, what had she done, and wouldn't this pain in her head go away?_

"_Ino, you have to tell me."_

"_I can't." She whimpered. "I'm tired and you don't like me anyway. I just want to sleep."_

_She closed her eyes, and she could almost feel it – the relief of being away from this place of coldness and confusion, back to somewhere that was warm, where the pain stopped and people didn't ask her questions…_

"Ino."

_It was like someone had touched her arm – she could feel him then, feel him pulling her away from the warmth and the stupor. She wanted to struggle, but something was nagging at her…_

"_Ino, why can't you leave me alone?"_

"_Because you're lost, you baka."_

_Like a bucket of cold water dumped over her head, clarity returned in a flood. Her eyelids flickered open, and she looked into dark eyes that stared back at her with something that passed for relief. _

"_You can't stay here." He said, as gently as she had ever heard him. "This isn't real."_

_She snorted._

"_None of this is real."_

"_Real enough," he gestured to her wrist; it was swollen and discolored, sprained if not broken._

"'_S your fault." She mumbled, and he chuckled, the sound rumbling in the air around them._

"_It's hard to keep control of your mind when you're…" he stopped, and his eyes glazed over for a second, as if he had completely forgotten what he was saying. _

"_It's troublesome," he concluded, as if there had been no lapse in his words._

_Ino felt a savage anger well up within her._

"_I need your help, you lazy-ass! I can't do this on my own."_

_He fixed her with a stare. _

"_You can."_

_She didn't believe him, but for once, she didn't feel like arguing._

"_You need to get going, though. If you stay here too long…" he trailed off, frowning. "Well, I don't know what will happen. You need to move on."_

* * *

It took half an hour of searching, but Choji finally spotted Tsunade exiting a familiar door. She was still speaking with Ino's mother as she stepped out into the road, her face drawn. Ino's mother looked as calm as ever, but the lines in her face seemed deeper than the last time Choji had seen her. He jogged the rest of the way down the street.

"Tsunade-sama!" Both women turned at the sound of his voice, and though Tsunade's frown deepened, Mrs. Yamanaka gave a small smile to her daughter's childhood friend.

"What is it, Choji?" Tsunade sounded as weary as Shizune had looked. He was almost too hesitant to tell her what was going on, but urgency won out and he stumbled out the explanation. Tsunade's eyes widened, but Mrs. Yamanaka's face remained a mask of impassivity.

When he finished, Tsunade turned to Mrs. Yamanaka.

"You're welcome to come, if you like."

She considered for a moment, then shook her head.

"If anything happens, you know where to find me. I think it best not to complicate matters, and I've told you what I know."

With a brief nod, Tsunade turned back to Choji.

"Let's go."

* * *

By the time they arrived, the chaos had slowed to a crawl, and Shizune looked decidedly less frazzled. She handed Tsunade the chart as they walked into the observation room, and Tsunade immediately set to asking her questions.

Choji, in the meantime, had gravitated toward the window, to gaze on his two teammates. Compared to the last time he had seen her, Ino looked worse for the wear. Shizune had bandaged her head and her wrist, and attempted to mop up the trail of blood that had run down her face. She looked paler than usual. His stomach churned, and it occurred to him that it had been hours since he had last eaten.

"… and she's stable?" He caught the end of the conversation between Tsunade and Shizune.

"We think so," Shizune answered, but there was still a hint of uncertainty in her voice. "Only time will tell."

Choji glanced at Tsunade, the trepidation in his voice belying any attempt at confidence.

"So, we wait?"

Tsunade sighed.

"We wait."

* * *

_The candle roars back, and he is once again entranced, lulled to sleep by the gentle movement of the flame. _

_But in the darkness, a distant light is flickering._

* * *

_A/N: I ought to dedicate this chapter to _Shikainoisthebest_. Your review pushed me to get my self back in gear and work on the chapter, so thank you. _

_Thanks also to _Medelie, scarlet letters in the snow, A Midsummer, Sayaka M, untouchable hexing witch, Flaming Beauty, FFNRocks, Otowa Nekozawa, The Clawed Butterfly, yellowlightning, Guest, VickytheRandomest, meepers369, _and_ Ann _for your reviews. They're greatly appreciated._


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